Do the orbits of Neptuneand Pluto intersect? If so, how many times.?

Answer 1

Pluto's orbit is often described as 'crossing' that of Neptune. In fact, Pluto's nodes (the points at which the orbit crosses the ecliptic) are both situated outside Neptune’s orbit and are separated by a distance of 6.4 AU (that is, over six times the distance of the Earth from the Sun). Furthermore, due to the orbital resonance between them, Pluto executes 2 full cycles while Neptune makes 3; this means that when Neptune reaches the 'closest' point on the orbit, Pluto remains far behind and when Pluto in turn reaches that point, Neptune is far (over 50°) ahead. During the following orbit of Pluto, Neptune is half an orbit away. Consequently, Pluto never gets closer than 30 AU to Neptune at this point in its orbit.

The actual closest approach between Neptune and Pluto occurs at the opposite part of the orbit, some 30 years after Pluto's aphelion (its last aphelion was in 1866) when Neptune catches up with Pluto (i.e. Neptune and Pluto have similar longitudes). The minimum distance was 18.9 AU in June 1896. In other words, Pluto never approaches Neptune much closer than it approaches Saturn.

In the 1950s it was suggested that Pluto was an escaped moon of Neptune, knocked out of orbit by Triton, Neptune's largest moon. This notion has since been discredited.[18] Triton shares many atmospherical and geological composition similarities with Pluto and is believed to be a captured Kuiper belt object.

Answer 2

No, they actually do not. While it's true that Pluto comes closer to the Sun at times than Neptune, their orbits don't actually cross.

Why? Because space is 3-dimensional, not 2. The orbit diagrams you usually see are 2d as viewed from "above." and don't take into account that Pluto's orbit is also tilted off the plane of the orbits of the rest of the planets. (This is called an "inclined" orbit - FYI)

So when Pluto's distance from the Sun is the same as Neptune's, it's actually "above" or "below" Neptune.

Answer 3

Yes, 2 times.